Use your smartphone as a controller in Google’s new browser-based game

Ride a bike, run a mile, or swim across a pool with Google Chrome.

Google is well-known for using adorable gimmicks to get users affiliated with its products and technologies. This time, the company is showing off certain aspects of its browser with a game that can be controlled by a smartphone using the mobile version of Chrome. The game is called Super Sync Sports, and it's quite endearing—especially because it kind of reminds us of Track and Field for the original Nintendo console.

To play the game, launch Super Sync Sports in your Chrome browser and select whether you’d like to run track and field, pedal a bicycle, or swim across a pool. The browser will then walk you through the controller setup process to get your mobile device synced up. Setup simply requires navigating to that same URL on your mobile browser, then inputting a special code. You can choose from a number of characters to compete on your behalf in these races. To move the character, your mobile phone acts as a trackpad and you’ll have to rapidly move your fingers to get your character ahead of the others. If you don’t maneuver your fingers along the screen just right, your character will fall behind.

It's a simple novelty game, but its main objective is to show what Google has done with browser technologies like touch APIs, WebSockets, and CSS3. Google says it will publish more information in the next few weeks about how it built the game.

Super Sync Sports is compatible with Chrome for Mobile on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or later and iOS 4.3 or later. If you’re feeling lonely, you can also invite up to three others with compatible devices to play with you.

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